Miami Head Football Coach Al Golden Says Nevin Shapiro Is A "Scumbag"

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Al Golden, who took over as head coach for the University of Miami football team this past winter, had no idea what kind of scandal he was walking into.

And now, he's paying for it, eight kids on his roster are suspended for various amounts of time.

Golden spoke out to the Miami Herald and when they asked him about Nevin Shapiro, he responded, "You mean that.... scumbag?" And then he jumped to the defense of his players, a little.

"People trusted him enough to give him their life savings,'' he said. "That's how good this idiot was as a con man. He was the best of the best. He got smart, successful people in their 50s and 60s to hand over millions."

So if these successful people were willing to give Shapiro their money, why wouldn't a bunch of college athletes trust him enough to take his money. Golden told the Herald:

"Now we're asking why these 18- and 19-year-old players from an entirely different socio-economic background didn't turn him down when he offered them what, $170 for something?'' he said.

Golden then pointed out that yes, his players were still wrong, and they should have not accepted the money and parties, but then again it was all because "Shapiro wanted to fulfill his dreams of hanging out with players."

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San Francisco Is Building A Net Around The Golden Gate Bridge To Stop People From Killing Themselves

24 people have killed themselves by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge so far this year, putting 2011 on a pace to have the most such suicides ever (the previous high is 1977, which had 39), reports Scott James for the New York Times.

Another 12 people have thrown themselves under trains in the area, which exceeds the 11 who killed themselves that way all last year.

San Francisco's suicide prevention lines say many people who call are mentioning the economy as a factor in their despair:

“We constantly hear, ‘I’m going to be homeless; I would rather be dead than be homeless,’ the head of the suicide hot line said.

About 500,000 Californians have been unemployed for so long that they've run through their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.

At least 1,400 people have killed themselves by leaping off the Golden Gate Bridge since it was built in 1937. And it turns out it's a brutal way to go: Many jumpers suffer "blunt force trauma" with cracked ribs and other limbs and then drown.

In response to the Golden Gate suicides, the city of San Francisco is planning to build a net around the bridge, at a cost of $45 million. (That's $10 million more than the $35 million it originally cost to build the bridge.) The net will be made of metal, and it will hurt to to jump into it--a factor that the city hopes will dissuade people from jumping.

One woman who jumped a few months ago, 55-year old Barbara Sue Beaver, emailed a friend from the deck of the bridge and asked him to check in on her pit bull. Beaver had been unemployed for two years since losing her job in a bookstore, and she had no health insurance. A letter found at her home said "I'm too lazy to navigate further."

Read Scott James' article at the New York Times >

(via @ariannahuff).

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